Russia was successfully holding the biggest sports competition, World Cup 2018. It is not a football competition only but it also presents the innovations of the technology in World Cup 2018. It becomes a stage of this innovation in every football match. The technology takes an important role on the broadcasting television. The last World Cup in 2014 was the debut of the first goal line. New technologies are shown in 2018 World Cup.
VAR
In 2018, your life will be more connected in the world. It includes the 2018 World Cup connecting closely to the latest technologies. The presence of VAR as the new technology in the World Cup has been approved by International Football Association Board. VAR is a Video Assistant Referee in a football. 2018 World Cup becomes the first sports competition offering the technology of the video for the additional tool for referees. VAR will be only used to correct the clear errors and missed incidents in changing a referee’s decision.
The referees can decide to depend on the oral information from VAR or reviewing the self-videos before making a decision. They will get much help from this technology of VAR in taking a crucial deal in every football match. It determines the valid or invalid goal created or giving a penalty kick for a particular team and giving punishment to a player making fouls. VAR has been supported by 33 cameras on the field and both are patent in the sides of the field to monitor offside position. There are 8 cameras that can be replayed slowly to ensure the referee’s decision accurate.
Electronic Performance and Tracking System
This technology was introduced in July 2017. The performance of this system has officially become the main innovation in the World Cup 2018. A tablet-based system will be given to all coaches of 32 teams, the access of players’ statistic, and video recordings in a real-time. Every team will get three tablets for one analysis in a stand, one for analyzing in the bench, and one for a medical team. The people on the bench will be able to access the information of players’ metric and position data and match video recordings. The recordings have the cancelation duration of 30 seconds.
This enables a technical analysis and medical team for giving a real-time knowledge to the coaches and medical staffs for taking a decision during a match. This system has an optical tracking system using GPS satellite system. It is integrated into the camera and used a tablet. For the moment of World Cup, it will be collected through two optical tracking cameras located in the main tribune. The team will have an access to the chosen camera.
An Official Ball of Adidas
Adidas becomes the only one vendor providing the official ball for official matches of World Cup 2018 in Russia. The ball is called Telstar 18. The ball is based on the original Telstar ball used in 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The 2018 version has new panels and frame. The designers in Adidas claimed that the ball has brought an innovation and a football design to the new level and offer the new experience for players and consumers.
Telstar is an inspiration of Telstar satellite acronym of Television Star, the first satellite in the world that is able to broadcast television broadcasting. An interesting aspect of this ball is the included chip of Near-Field Communication enabling the interaction with smartphone, iOS, or Android. But, the use of NFC is used for consumers only and will not help players to track kicks or heading. NFC technology was firstly used in a ball introduced in World Cup 2018.
4K UHD Video and VR
Ultra High Definition Technology 4K also involves being a new innovation in the 2018 World Cup. It was the first time of the 4K content available for broadcasters. But, there are borders of the technology. Firstly, the match will be available through daring and application of iPlayer, not television broadcasting. Secondly, the flowing service was served. It means that only hundreds of people are able to watch at one time. The content of VR will be available for some broadcasters. For BBC, it is available through BBC Sports VR application. It enables the viewers to feel like in the VIP stadium.
Big Bang Referee Watch
Hublot is a company of the official watch in World Cup 2018. Big Bang Referee is a limited edition watch running OS Wear from Google and completed with some features of World Cup. The body of this watch is made of titanium and saved with six H screws. The design is similar to the series of Big Bang Hublot. It is able to display information of the real-time score, a number of cards, the goal scorer, substitute players, and many more.
